On a warm fall day in 2010, a Carolina scholar serenaded picnickers on the historic Horseshoe during Family Weekend. Brad Williams, a senior at the time, played the banjo while his fellow Top Scholar Colin Kane harmonized on guitar. Williams had fallen in love with bluegrass and banjo when he was a child, and though he was studying finance and management, banjo music was the subject of his Honors senior thesis.
Two women sat near Williams and Kane. Jenni Knight, a sophomore McNair scholar, wore a purple gingham dress and held a digital camera as she chatted with her friend, fellow Top Scholar Elena Faria. As a budding journalist — a career dream she’d had since childhood — Knight knew the importance of documenting events like the Family Weekend Picnic. The previous fall, she’d interviewed acclaimed romance writer Nicholas Sparks when he visited campus.
But neither Williams nor Knight recognized the significance of this moment beneath a tree on the Horseshoe. It was just another beautiful day on campus, a moment in which a photographer captured them with the snap of a shutter. Neither realized that they occupied the same frame as their future spouse.
It would take a little while for that realization to set in.
This is not a love story (yet)
Almost fifteen years have passed since that picnic photograph, and Jenni and Brad Williams smile at each other as they recount their college memories. They sit side-by-side in their Greenville home; behind them, Brad’s banjo hangs on the wall, surrounded by family photos.
“I was telling a coworker today: ‘I hope we don’t disappoint Val because we don’t have a love story in college,’” says Jenni.
Though Jenni and Brad were aware of each other during their undergraduate studies at the University of South Carolina and shared many mutual friends, their love story didn’t begin until after graduation. But they did love their South Carolina Honors College community.
“I always have said at different events that we speak at, or talking to kids that are applying now, that there’s no institution in all of higher education that will wrap their loving arms around a student the way the staff and faculty the Honors College does,” says Brad. “That was true for me, and it’s true now.”
Brad, a first-generation college student, cites his Top Scholar recruitment weekend as one of the most impactful moments of his college search. After being treated like a “Division One athlete,” Brad knew that the Honors College could provide opportunities and create communities that would foster his academic and professional growth.
“It was alarming and refreshing, if that’s possible, to be in a community of people who are high achieving, really smart people. It didn’t necessarily feel competitive to me; it really felt uplifting.”
Two years later, Jenni began her own college search. Originally, she was set on attending college in her home state of Virginia, but USC offered something that Virginia Tech, her initial choice, did not: a broadcast journalism program — and an impressive one, at that.
“I got to meet Dean Charles Bierbauer at the time, and I was just in awe that a dean of a school that I could potentially attend used to be an ABC News correspondent in Russia during the Cold War,” says Jenni.
After matriculating, Jenni didn’t waste any time exploring all USC had to offer. She learned the fundamentals of broadcast journalism as a reporter for Student Gamecock Television, marveling that first-year students could interview the likes of ice cream entrepreneurs Ben & Jerry or former South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford. Jenni also enjoyed the SCHC’s service learning courses, such as Spanish for Healthcare Providers, dynamic in-class experiences.
“I took a Journalism 201 class with just Honor students, and that was so neat because I was like, ‘Okay, these people are all exactly like me,’” Jenni recalls. “None of my friends from high school wanted to be in journalism... It was really neat to be surrounded by a community of people who had similar goals, and we can support each other in those goals and similar interests.”
This might be a love story (in the future)
So no love story yet, but plenty of learning and building lifelong friendships. Eventually, Brad and Jenni’s careers would take them from Columbia to Greenville. Jenni began working at WYFF News 4, launching the area’s first Spanish newscast, Aquí Para Ti. In 2015, Brad joined Wells Fargo Private Bank of Greenville. In proximity once again, Brad contacted Jenni in September 2016.
“My line to reach out to her to engage some sort of meet up was: ‘I need as many Gamecocks in my life as I can get here in the Upstate. Would you like to meet up for a drink sometime?’”
She agreed. And, this time around, Brad realized something that had evaded him in Columbia: “Shortly into that meeting, I had already decided that she was it.”
Over drinks and tacos, the Honors alumni reconnected and realized that they both had tickets to see Hank Williams, Jr., the following weekend. By the end of the evening, Brad was sure that Jenni was The One, and about a week after seeing one another at the concert, Brad asked Jenni on an official date.
Her response? “Maybe in the future.”
At the time, she wanted to focus on her friends and her career — finding her husband wasn’t part of the plan.
It wouldn’t take long for Jenni to realize, though, that her plans would change. She and Brad continued to meet up — “just as friends” — and he promised that he wouldn’t even hold the door for her. (He held the door.) In November, having decided that her plans needed to change, Jenni turned the tables and asked Brad on a date to celebrate his birthday. There was no looking back; they would marry in spring 2019.
“Our wedding was a bona fide Honors College reunion,” says Brad. “That’s what Jan (Smoak) called it. I think Jan was the most popular person at our wedding!”
Forever to thee
The Upstate is a tough place to be a Gamecock, so Jenni and Brad make it a priority to stay up to date with their fellow alumni. Jenni recently threw a virtual baby shower for one of her fellow McNair scholars; Brad regularly meets up with his first-year roommate, who lives nearby.
“The wide range of contacts that I made through the Honors College have been so helpful because with journalism you don’t know a ton about one topic, but you need to know a little bit about a lot of things,” says Jenni. “And when you have friends in all different fields, it’s not uncommon for me to call someone and say, ‘Hey, remember me from college? I’m doing this story — could you help me out with this?’”
“I have a lot of personal conversations (with my business partner) about people in our life and our past,” says Brad. “He’s always like, ‘You know the craziest people! I don’t know people who do this kind of research or are a nuclear engineer, or all these other things.’ Those are our best friends. They’re doing amazing things all over the country — all over the world, for that matter.”
Jenni is now executive producer of special projects for WYFF News 4, and Brad co-founded the Highlands Wealth Group, where he serves as director of financial planning. They try to stay involved with USC as much as they can, as they’re eager to invest in the programs that invested so much in them.
Jenni encourages current students to “soak it all up,” and Brad invites their fellow alumni to “find opportunities to get back in touch and get involved.” Both were named 2024 SCHC Distinguished Young Alumni, a testament to their accomplishments and their involvement with their alma mater.
For the Williamses, though, their proudest Carolina-related accomplishment has to do with their daughter. Cora, their twenty-month-old, is as devoted a fan as they come. At the words “Clemson Tigers,” she responds with an emphatic, “Boooo!”
Stay tuned: We’ll check back in with her in about 18 years, when she’s spending a sunny fall day on the historic Horseshoe during Family Weekend.